Hand Held GPS User Interface Styles and User Experiences

• Main Authors: Ying-Cyuan Chen, 陳映全
• Other Authors: Dr. Chien-Cheng Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/51278770012113365364

碩士 === 華梵大學 === 工業設計學系碩士班 === 99 === The purpose of this study is to investigate different brand names of commercial GPS products regarding the advantages and disadvantages of their user interface designs. By so doing can help design a more user-friendly user interface. In addition, the design suggestions pertinent to interface usability are also proposed in this study. The experiment of this study was divided into two stages including the preliminary investigation stage and design verification stage. In the preliminary investigation stage, the hierarchy, graphical affordance and interface usability of three commercial GPS products were analyzed. A total of 36 participants divided into novice and experienced groups were invited to take part in the experiment. A two factors factorial design was conducted in this stage. The generated results revealed that: (1) in the era of highly developed touch-sensitive display, users still have needs to understand the hardware characteristics. (2) Because different brand name products adopts different terminologies and interface hierarchy which may cause users to feel confused. (3) Because all the GPS products were closed system without providing multiple directions and routes to reach the same destination, the participant’s task performances were influenced. In the design verification stage, the interface experiment was designed based on the summary from literature review and results generated from the preliminary investigation stage. A 4 (interface style) by 2 (use experience) mixed factorial experiment was designed. A total of 10 participants were invited to take part in the experiment. Among them, five were expert users and the other five were novice users. They all need to interact with four different GPS user interfaces design with four styles. After the experiment, participants were required to fill in the QUIS, SUS, and subjective feelings questionnaires. The generated results showed that: (1) Users are satisfied with simple and clear information hierarchy which also enhances its learnability. (2) In terms of interface usability, users are accustomed to the traditional touch screen interaction style, the innovative sliding mode of interaction was not accepted by many users. (3) The text fonts and sizes may affect users’ recognition. (4) Foldable file folders designed with text supports enable users to obtain better task performance. Keywords: hand-held GPS, interface style, hierarchical structure, graphical affordance, usability, learnability